About Me

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Album Review: This Pale Fire - Alchemy (2017)

Another review I had published in the May/June 2018 issue of NZ Musician magazine:

It feels like an
age since Auckland’s Corban Koschak announced his arrival as a young songwriter
of depth and eloquence on This Pale Fire’s debut EP, Dusk (2014). The
intervening years have seen Koschak hone his craft and build a solid reputation
on the local live circuit, prior to the release of this full-length debut,
Alchemy, in late 2017. Alchemy resumes where Dusk left off, with a 12-track set full of gentle, emotive, acoustic gems of understated beauty, which mostly
deal with love, loss, and all manner of existential angst. Throughout, Koschak,
working closely with frequent collaborator and album producer Levi Patel,
demonstrates an innate understanding of songcraft and arrangement. Each tune is
given ample room to breathe, build, and develop a life of its own. From
pastoral opener 'Northern Lights' through to dreamy closer 'Outro',
nothing feels out of place or rushed. Each track benefits from rare attention
to detail, whether it’s the range of instrumentation on offer – acoustic and
electric guitars, keys, and strings, most notably, cello – or whether it’s the
sumptuous production gloss provided by Patel. If there’s a slight concern, it’s
that some of This Pale Fire’s work can tend to come across as being a little
one dimensional in places. Much of this stuff is dark, intimate, and haunting,
to the point where, depending on your constitution, you may feel like tuning
out, or looking the other way, to avoid (what feels like) an element of rubber-necking
on Koschak’s heartfelt personal pain. Or perhaps it’s simply the case that being
able to draw you in so close in the first place works as the album’s greatest
strength? Whatever the case, Alchemy is a dreampop masterclass, and a terrific
debut from an artist surely destined for much greater things.